Further proposals to remove motorists from Dublin city

Proposals to pedestrianise several Dublin city centre streets were discussed at a transport committee of Dublin City Council this morning.

The proposals include banning cars from some roads and making some streets public transport only.

Cross city access routes Westmoreland and D’olier Street will be public transport only while Suffolk Street will be completely pedestrianised.

Cars will also be blocked from Bachelors Walk and a similar move on the South Quays is also being considered.

Central to the Council’s plan is College Green which will be bus and Luas only.

When the proposals were announced in June of this year Conor Faughnan, the director of Consumer Affairs with The AA, claimed the existing public transport system was not capable of providing additional capacity, and that it could not be considered a "victory" to drive cars out of the city.

"Some of the measures appear to be gratuitous and you wonder what purpose they are serving," he added.

He told The Last Word with Matt Cooper that “a third of commuters come in by private car” because the city is only “physically capable of carrying 48 per cent of commuters on public transport”

“Dublin is only physically capable of taking less than half if it’s daily commuters by public transport.

“That’s what sets us apart from other cities, it’s not selfish car drivers.

“It’s not like we have lazy motorists driving alongside empty Luas trams in the morning.

“Every public transport asset we have is stuffed to capacity.

“In London, before the congestion charge was introduced they had almost 90 per cent of commuters using public transport.

“In Dublin we have an army of people who have no other choice, if they can't use a car to access Dublin city centre the public transport alternative is not there."

CEO of Dublin Town Business Group and member of the Committee Richard Guiney, said: there are 10,000 parking spaces in Dublin city centre and 31% of total spend comes from people who travel into the city by car.

"We do want to have north south access because what we do know is that 30% of people who shop on the north side come from the south side and vice versa, it doesn't necessarily have to come through College Green but we do need access to those car parks."

Mr Guiney also said he would have concerns about removing cars from the Quays and he said that is one of the areas of the plan where they would like to see some modifications.